The invention herein relates to improved packing saddle for use in gas and liquid contact apparatus. Saddles of the type described herein have been in use in the past. However, the design of these devices have some times hindered their effective application in treating towers due to the problems associated with the settling of the packing bed and inordinate amounts of liquids trapped in the tower due to pooling or damming of liquid compositions therein.
One of the problems associated with saddles of the type described above is that they tend to engage with one another in such a way that the effective surface area thereof is reduced because certain surfaces of one saddle engage with another so as to eliminate any effective contact of liquids and vapors passing in countercurrent through the saddle bed. Another problem which has arisen is that the beds after a period of use tend to settle. The effective surface area for the entire bed may be reduced substantially, the pressure drop may increase beyond acceptable limits, and the settled bed may provide dams for chemicals and/or liquids to pool or well such that the effective counterflow of the liquids and vapors within the bed is reduced substantially.
The present invention contemplates a design in which not only is the settling problem virtually eliminated but the pooling or welling of any liquid is made virtually impossible due to the effective separation provided by the design of the saddle. Further, the number of saddles required per cubic foot may be greatly reduced over conventional saddles due in part to the improved separation between saddles and the greater rigidity provided by the design as described below. Excessive settling, having been eliminated, the effect of the surface area provided is stablized at that which is calculated for a particular volume of saddles in the tower. In this regard, since the saddles are always separated from one another and won't settle beyond a predictable and acceptable limit, the pressure drop is rendered stable and remains substantially less than that with the saddles of the prior art which tend to become tightly compacted.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a tower packing saddle which is economical to manufacture and will provide sufficient separation from other adjacent packing saddles to eliminate the aforementioned problems.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a tower packing saddle forming a stable bed when deposited in a treatment tower.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a tower packing saddle providing effective fluid and vapor contacting surface without excessive pressure drop within the tower.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a tower packing saddle which is not susceptible to collapsing or flattening such that the packing bed will remain relatively stable in volume and effective surface area for fluid/vapor contacting.